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When he entered, he found a scene of grief and confusion. The queen was extended upon a couch, weeping bitterly; while Amenche and some of her ladies, although themselves weeping, were trying to console her. The princess gave a cry of joy when she saw him and, running forward, threw herself into his arms. "You have heard the news?" she exclaimed. "Cacama is lost.
Cortez learned from his spies what was going on, and would have marched against Tezcuco, had not Montezuma dissuaded him; telling him that Cacama was a powerful prince, and would certainly be aided by many other chiefs, and that the enterprise would be hazardous in the extreme. Cortez then endeavored to negotiate, but received a haughty answer from Cacama.
"It was a terrible error, as well as a crime on the part of the emperor, if it be true that he was concerned in it," Cacama said. "If so, he took no one here into his counsel, but acted wholly on the advice of the priests." "That is where the general considers the danger lies.
Cacama was summoned to a council on the following day; and returned, saying that the picture had quite turned the scale in Roger's favor; that it had been examined by the chief scribes and the men of science, who all agreed that no such thing had been seen before; and that a person who was thus able to turn, as it were, a leaf of paper into a mirror, to fix upon it the representation of scenes just as the eye beheld them, must be possessed of powers altogether strange and supernatural.
Cacama asked, as the cry of despair went up; when it became known that the bridge was immovable, and that there were no means of crossing the breaks in the causeway, ahead. He muttered an exclamation of triumph, when Roger repeated to him the news he had just learned. "That settles it," he said. "Their fate is now sealed. The gods are at last fighting again for Mexico.
Besides, who have they to lead them? Was not Cacama betrayed by his own nobles? Let us send for Cuitcatl, and hear what he advises us."
"How far will it carry?" Cacama asked. "It might carry another hundred yards, but the aim cannot be depended upon at over two hundred yards, even by good shots," Roger said. "Of course, the longer ranges are useful for firing at a body of men. I should say that large tree would be about the extreme range. If you will send two men down to it, I will see whether I can shoot as far.
"Orders have been issued to the city guard to arrest you, immediately, wherever you might be found; and the envoys themselves started at once, with the guard they had brought with them, to the waterside. Up to that time Cacama, who had not left them, was in ignorance what had become of you; and I could see he was anxious, and much troubled."
Cuitcatl, though a powerful cazique, has but small influence in comparison with that which Cacama, as King of Tezcuco and nephew of Montezuma, possessed." "How is Montezuma? What has become of him? We heard that he was wounded; but it scarce seems possible that his own subjects should raise a hand against him."
"Roger, I am sorry for you, I am sorry for my wife, and for Amenche; but I rejoice for my country. If you should escape this night, Roger and you have more chance than most, since you speak our language do all you can for them." "You may be sure that I shall do that, Cacama; but the chance of any escaping seems, to me, a small one. Still, it may be that some will get over alive.
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